The sacking of a whistle blower

The sacking of Dr. Bashir Gwandu of the Nigerian Communications Commission couldn’t have come at a worse time with respect to the war against (or, as some might say, the fuss about) corruption.

About the time that Gwandu was being relieved of his position for exposing alleged corruption in the NCC, Ibrahim Lamorde, the general officer commanding the war against corruption, was telling the Senate why the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is rather ineffectual.

Wealthy people who are being prosecuted use their money and influence to perpetually drag out the process and keep justice at bay, the EFCC chairman said. If only the EFFC had more money, he pleaded, they would make more progress.

But that plea did not impress too many people. “Lamorde sounded pathetic about EFCC’s capabilities,” the Vanguard stated in an opinion last Tuesday. “He provided no hope that the billions of Naira he wants to spend in 2013 would not be another waste.”

It is remarkable that in pleading the EFCC’s inefficacy, Lamorde was sounding very much like his immediate predecessor, Mrs. Farida Waziri. It all means really that we can’t count on the EFCC and related agencies alone to prosecute this war. We all have to enlist.

It is in this context that Gwandu’s dismissal as the NCC’s Executive Commissioner for Technical Services is worrisome. Gwandu was dismissed for insubordination becauseof his allegation of corruption in the commission.

Among other things, he alleged that NCC officials were doling out frequencies without due process and competitive bidding. And frequencies were given away at much lower prices than they should have fetched. One doesn’t need to read between the lines to ascertain the implications.

According to officials, these allegations were investigated and found wanting. There is just one problem: a vast majority of Nigerians would readily believe Gwandu than the investigators who concluded that his allegations are unfounded.

The obvious question is, why would a highly-positioned and presumably handsomely rewarded official make false accusations about the very agency of which he was a part? It takes a lot of courage to go public with allegations of corruption within one’s own agency. False allegations seem so improbable.

But then, one must not be too sure of that either. Even the most credible allegations may turn out to be fabrications.

Here are two bizarre but instructive cases from the United States. In October 1994, a Caucasian woman in South Carolina reported to the police that a black man had hijacked her car, along with her two children. The allegation set off considerable controversy when police began to question its veracity.

I recall quite a few feminists going on television to express dismay and assert that a mother would not make up such a story. Well, that mother did. Police ultimately determined that it was a gruesome infanticide. The woman had actually driven the children into a river and had them drown in her car. Don’t ask why.

In an earlier case in 1989, also in October, a Caucasian man reported to the Boston police that a black man in jogging pants had shot and killed his pregnant wife and wounded him as well. The report was very credible because the killing took place in a black neighbourhood.

Police promptly began to round up all black men that fit the description. One was kept in custody as a prime suspect.

Then the complainant’s brother succumbed to the sting of his conscience. He confessed that his brother did the killing and he helped him spirit away the gun. Exactly why the man killed his pregnant wife was never ascertained because he committed suicide soon after.

While these incidents may seem far-fetched from the drama at the NCC, at least they point to the reality that no allegation is so credible that it cannot be false.

Even then, the dismissal of Gwandu remains problematic. Even if his allegations are false, I am not sure that President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration has wisely weighed the implications of reinforcing the deeply held belief that it is in cahoots with the corrupt.

I don’t know much about Gwandu. The only impression I have had of him is from watching video interviews of him posted on the web by the International Telecommunications Union.

In the videos that were apparently shot at an ITU conference early this year, Gwandu explained some of the challenges facing telecommunications development in Nigeria. He also made a strong case for the allocation of more spectrum to Nigeria and other African countries.

Of course, one cannot make much character inferences from such a limited “exposure” about someone. Still, I must say that I was impressed. There was something about him that reminded me of Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa who had the image of a technocrat rather than a politician.

Gwandu spoke matter-of-factly, with no air of flamboyance or self-indulgence. I got the impression of him as someone who is interested in getting the job done rather than what the job can do for him. He seems like someone whose principles would cause him to take on his own agency at his own risk. And I emphasise ‘seems.’

Ordinarily, the person making an allegation is the one who has to prove it. But given that Gwandu’s allegations are quite consistent with our civic pathos, the burden of proof has to fall on the government.

It is not enough to declare that Gwandu’s allegations are unfounded; Nigerians want to see the details of how that conclusion was reached. Total transparency, in other words. It is not enough to discredit one aspect of the allegations, such as the allocation of spectrum to the police. It is necessary to publicly demonstrate the falsity of all of them.

The press certainly has a huge role to play here. Thanks to the Freedom of Information law, the task of digging deep should be a little easier now.

Sad that the Presidency sacked the whistle-blowing patriot and kept the seemingly corrupt villains at the NCC. This episode summarizes the sad corrupt story of our nation. The EFCC has a duty to fully investigate this scandal. I salute Dr. Gwandu for his bravery and patriotism.